In the snowboarding universe, the U.S. is the gateway to the world. The timing couldn’t have been better.

The weakened U.S. industry has suffered through several disastrous snow seasons coupled with an ailing economy. Jenke saw an opportunity to move in fast with his 250-style line of patented Airhole face masks that allow snowboarders to breathe cold mountain air without collecting moisture.

Jenke had already been named one of nine BDC Young Entrepreneur Award finalists on the strength of his expansion plan. But the $100,000 grand prize would go to the finalist who secured the most public votes over a 20-day online voting period. The public could vote as often as once daily.

All Jenke had to do was mobilize an instant, massive, social media campaign.

Right.

The learning came hard and fast.

A few days into the contest, Jenke’s and his six employees were appalled to discover themselves in fifth place out of the nine finalists. First lesson: Social media is a fast game.

With a sinking heart, Jenke soon realized that asking even his best supporters to vote repeatedly, much as they loved him, was asking too much. To make voting easier, he quickly bought the easy-to-remember domain votejenke.com, for about $25. Its only function was to bring people directly to the BDC voting page.

On the advice of social media strategist Ben Pickering, Jenke launched a contest within the contest. People who shared Jenke’s messages on Twitter or Instagram could win daily prizes or a custom snowboard.

“If you’re giving away a snowboard, chances are you’re attracting people who are interested in snowboarding,” Pickering said.

Endeavour began to move up in the rankings.

Jenke pumped out daily posters and videos, and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram messages. But still it wasn’t enough. Jenke’s lead competitor proved to be a 15-employee print shop from tiny Moose Jaw, Sask.

“One of our advantages was being from Saskatchewan,” Joel Pinel of WOW Factor Media said. “People help each other out. Our premier was tweeting us.”

Pinel had a strong head start. The minute he knew he was shortlisted, Pinel ran a “Summer’s Coming” Facebook promotion offering a tantalizing six-person, blow-up pool “island” as the prize. “We went from 389 ‘likes’ to just under 27,000 right before the competition,” he said.

Pinel ran a wacky, lighthearted campaign. “We would go around the city and — obviously there are sign bylaws — but we would put a sign in a really random spot and take it right down. We just wanted a picture for social media.”

Pinel’s sister in Australia stopped random travellers and photographed them holding handwritten “I voted for WOW Factor” signs. She’d post the photo on Facebook, the travellers would tag it and tell friends. “We had a couple of posts with hundreds of thousands of people reached,” Pinel said.

Meanwhile, Jenke called on his strategic business partners for help. “We were up against a small town, so we had to make ourselves into a small town,” he said. “We couldn’t do it geography-wise. We had to rally a global community to vote once.”

But as they approached the final weekend of voting, WOW Factor pulled ahead once again and Jenke knew he was doomed. Snowboarders head outdoors on weekends and ignore their computers. Meanwhile, in Saskatchewan, Pinel’s sisters personally messaged everyone on WOW Factor’s Facebook list.

WOW Factor won the contest. Pinel is using the prize money to buy a special router that will allow him to expand into cutting metal, acrylic and wood signs for Saskatchewan’s booming construction industry.

Jenke won the $25,000 second prize. In the process, he engaged snowboard fans worldwide from Japan to Australia, Europe and all through North America. He reached more than 100,000 new people on Facebook and increased Facebook Page Likes by 17 per cent. His Klout score, a measurement of social media analytics, increased from 45 to 67 on a scale of one to 100, Pickering said.

The key lesson learned? Engaging content is king, Jenke said. If he had to do it again, he’d recruit his strategic partners earlier.

While the BDC is not releasing the number of votes cast, Jenke estimated that even his most loyal fans voted on average six days out of the possible 20. Although he ran a lean campaign, “It was shocking how much each vote cost us,” he said. “It probably cost us $2 a vote.”

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